Monday, April 28, 2008

Audubon grouse trip and a concert

Saturday morning E and I got up at 4:30 a.m. so we could meet the Audubon group in Hyrum at 5 a.m. Where on earth could we be going at such an insanely early hour you ask? A Sharp-tailed Grouse lek of course! LOL Luckily E's alarm went off, because mine didn't! AHHHH!!! It takes about 12 minutes to get to Hyrum, and we were at 1/4 of a tank of gas. So we threw our clothes on, threw the birding equipment in the car, and hit the road! We got to the meeting place (the McDonald's in Hyrum) at 4:58. Whew! After letting the people in charge know that we were there, we ran over to the gas station. What kind of farming town gas station is NOT OPEN at 5 a.m.? Don't farmers get up that early? LOL McDonald's opened at 5:19, so we at least got a little something to eat, but still, no gas. Then we drove out to Avon, which is about 15 minutes south of Hyrum. Kept driving, till we got to the middle of nowhere LOL Dh's friend told him the hike would be about 1/2 mile. No problem. Well, it was just over a mile, straight up a hill! I am SO out of shape LOL But it was worth it when we looked through the spotting scope at a bunch of funny little feather balls dancing around and chasing each other. And then the sun came up, and the hillsides were so pretty! The Western Meadowlarks were singing, and the sky was a beautiful pale pink, and the frost was glistening on the grass; what a perfect morning! Unfortunately, the rising sun defrosted the mud, so we had nice mudcakes on our shoes by the time we got back down to the car LOL I ended up driving back to town in my socks. Thankfully, dh's car gets much better gas mileage than my van, so the 1/4 tank ended up being plenty of gas. On the way down the canyon and back through Avon and Paradise, we saw Green-tailed Towhee, Dark-eyed Junco, Chipping Sparrow, Barn Swallow, Chukar, and Swainson's Hawk (along with the usual pigeons, magpies, robins and starlings). This morning put me up to 106 species! After the 20-25 minute drive home, I had totally stiffened up, and had a hard time getting out of the car LOL But it was so worth it! And guess what I did with the rest of the day...

My sister-in-law, V, picked me up about 2 and we drove to Salt Lake. We stopped briefly at Pottery Barn in Trolley Square. I've never been in there before, and I should probably never go back LOL I could spend WAY too much money in there! We had gone to Trolley Square to visit the Sharper Image store, looking for a massage chair for V. She's a massage therapist, and by the time she finishes work every day, she needs a massage too! Unfortunately, the Sharper Image store was gone! So we got back in the car and headed for Ikea. Never been in there before either. V's dh is from Uzbekistan, and Ikea has a swedish food store. He wanted some European food from the market. She got him some pate stuff and herring, along with chocolate and cookies. There was no dark chocolate to be found! I LOVE chocolate, but I decided not to get any, since none of it was dark. We only had about 20 minutes to see the rest of the store, so we only saw a little bit of the bottom floor. Guess I'll just have to go back some time!After Ikea, we met V's cousin and significant other (and their REALLY cute baby boy) for dinner at Texas Roadhouse. Oh yummy steak! Then off to the concert!The concert was at Kingsbury Hall up on the University of Utah campus (read "no parking" LOL). We were a few minutes late, so we had to wait to be seated. Okay, and the concert was: Celtic Woman! The opening act was the High Kings. They were pretty fun, and we enjoyed them, but Celtic Woman was absolute magic! We were actually seated in the orchestra pit, in the fourth row, on nice comfy chairs with a LOT of leg room, and we were so close to the stage! The four soloists had incredibly beautiful voices and the violin player was so talented and fun to watch. I can't figure out how she can play while she's leaping all over the stage LOL I can't even begin to tell you how wonderful this concert was. If you EVER get a chance to go to one of their concerts, or even just to watch them on PBS (which is where I originally stumbled across them), DO IT! It is so worth it!

We got home about 12:30, and then dh decided to tell me about everything he did that day, and then Az (my daughter) came down with a fever and spent most of the night awake. Needless to say, I didn't make it to church the next day! LOL